114 



Henry M. Brooks, of the Curators on the Historical De- 

 partment, read a circular which he had prepared, requesting 

 the friends of the Institute and others to collect any matter 

 that may serve to illustrate the cause, origin and progress 

 of the present war ; and, on his motion, it was voted that the 

 same be printed and distributed under the direction of the 

 curators. 



A large collection of specimens in Natural History were 

 placed upon the table, the same having been recently received. 

 F. W, Putnam made a few remarks upon these specimens, 

 and stated that there were on the table 262 different species, 

 and over 400 specimens of animals, and that at least 200 of 

 these species were new to the Institute's collection, this 

 being a much larger number of species than it was often the 

 good fortune of any Society to obtain at one time. 



The collection received of Mr. E. D. Ropes, of Zanzibar, 

 is of great value to science, and will add much to the use- 

 fulness of the Institute's collection. There are several new 

 and undescribed genera and species of Fishes in this collec- 

 tion, and many that are very rare and interesting — in all, 54 

 species of Fishes, 1 species of Birds, 4 species of Reptiles, 

 30 species of MoUusks, 33 species of Crustaceans, and 39 

 si^ecies of Radiates, making 167 species of alcoholic speci- 

 mens. Many of the Radiates and Crtistaceans are unde- 

 scribed. In addition to these there are three bottles con- 

 taining Insects in alcohol that have not yet been arranged, and 

 a large number of dried specimens of Corals and Sponges, 

 that will be reported upon at a future meeting. Be- 

 sides the specimens retained at the Institute, quite a large 

 number of duplicates have been sent to the Museum of 

 Comparative Zoology at Cambridge, in exchange for species 

 not in the possession of the Institute. Mr. Putnam desired 

 to take this opportunity of calling the attention of members 



